How to Fly on a Budget: 7 Tips for Finding Cheap Flights

2018 was a great year for travel. I got the opportunity to travel to over 5 countries and 8 states and managed not to break the bank. I actually did most of this traveling while I was a full-time student and working part-time.

Below are 7 ways I was able to find cheap flights.

I live in Detroit so to minimize the cost of my trip to London, I actually drove to Chicago O’Hare airport from Detroit and then flew a Norwegian airline flight from there to London Gatwick airport. The flight from Chicago to London Gatwick cost me a total of $250. Whereas from Detroit it would have been over $400. Honestly, you can probably get it for a lot cheaper from Chicago or other major airports but we went in the summer, a time with lots of traffic to Europe.

I know airlines like Frontier and Spirit are usually the butt of all the airline jokes in the U.S., but budget airlines really do save you a lot of money. And this summer I discovered that there were so many of them around the world. WOW airlines literally always have trips from Detroit to Iceland for around $200. I have compiled a list of budget airlines around the world, so planning your next trip can be easy.

HONESTLY GIRL(I say girl as a term of endearment that can apply to anyone)!!! You do not need all of those bags. With some airlines, especially budget airlines bags are usually paid for separately. But depending on which airline you take, a personal item or a carry on luggage is free. I had to learn this the hard way, as I was dragging two big bags through rocks in the middle of the countryside in Lynge, Denmark and I encountered a herd of cows. I wanted to run and just forget my bags at this point but my boyfriend would not let me. He kept reminding me that if I ran they would only chase after me, so I just kept dragging my suitcases through a path of hundreds of rocks that led to our Airbnb. Luckily the cows stayed in their lane and I did not have to throw these hands, jk. But I say all of this just to say, honey, you do not need all of those clothes.

TRAVEL LIGHT!!!

This past month, I wanted to go to Miami to board a cruise for my birthday. And because of my crazy schedule, I could not buy my ticket till the week of the trip and this was in December so flights are generally a lot more expensive around this time. So I went to the Spirit counter** to buy a flight from Detroit to Miami and they said the flight would be $350. I literally laughed at paying that much for a spirit flight. But I knew if Spirit was that expensive then every other airline had to be expensive. So I stepped aside and went on google flights and used their tool that helps you look for airports that are close by your desired location. I found a ticket from Detroit to Fort Myers for $80 online and when I bought it at the counter the ticket ended up being $50. So I rented a car from Fort Myers and that was $100 for 4 days. This car came in handy because we didn’t need to get any Lyfts or Ubers to our hotel, restaurants or to get to the cruise. In total, I ended up paying $150 to get to my desired destinations which were way cheaper than the $350 on flights and countless other dollars on Lyfts I would have spent.

The best days of the week to fly are usually Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Then if you cannot travel on these days, Thursdays and Saturdays also have cheap fares. For many locations, Summer travel is extremely expensive so if you do want to travel in the summer try going early in May before US holidays of Labor Day, Memorial Day and Fourth of July or wait till much later in September. Traveling around any major holiday will cost you a lot so if you can avoid traveling around major holidays like Christmas.

There are many travel websites out there that you can use to compare airline prices. Utilize as many of them as you can to compare different deals. Below is a list of a few of them that have been useful for me in the past.

One thing I have noticed is the more I search for flights to a particular location on my internet browser, the higher the prices go up. So you are not the only one it is happening to. So make sure to search for flights in Incognito or private mode on your browser.The browser resets your cookies every time you open a new incognito window so you start fresh and it won’t keep jacking up the price each time you search.

I included this as a bonus because not everyone has the opportunity to get a credit card to rack up points with. But if you are fortunate enough to get approved for a rewards credit card, they are definitely worth it. One of my credit cards has helped me get free hotel stays but they are also really great for getting free flights.

Thanks for reading!

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Published by Bisi

Bisi is a data engineer by day and freelance writer and travel blogger by night. She enjoys exploring the world on a budget. She hopes to visit every country in the world especially all 54 African countries. She is happiest when she is eating well-seasoned food.
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